Persuasion by Jane Austen

There is something oddly comforting about re-reading a book, so it an interesting exercise to revisit a book one disliked on first reading. I was 18 and a student when I was conscripted into reading Persuasion, and I grudged every minute of it.  Talk about hammering a square peg into a round hole, I was entirely the wrong shape for receiving whatever it was Jane Austen had to say.  Things change, including me - thank goodness - and I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading Persuasion. 

How relevant it is that I gave this book another whirl, because it about second chances - in this case, a second chance for two characters to find true love. 

Sir Walter Eliot - a baronet, the lowest rank of the British aristocracy - is a widower with three daughters.  Elizabeth, the eldest, is a true beauty; Mary, the youngest, is safely married; but Anne, the unmarried middle child, has lost the bloom of youth.  As a result, Anne's prospects are very uncertain.  Not that this was always the case.  Eight years earlier, when Anne was in the full blush of youth, she was in love with, and was loved by, one Mr Frederick Wentworth, a commoner; however, Anne was persuaded by her father and Lady Russell, a family friend, to discontinue the romance on the grounds of social incompatibility.  But now Frederick has returned with a substantial fortune behind him.  Is there a chance of the romance being rekindled, or will other eligible suitors win Anne's hand, if not her heart?

Persuasion is set just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.  Austen contrasts the prejudices and petty spites of the minor aristocracy with the goodwill and fellowship of the returning admirals and captains.  The interplay of these two groups provides the ground for the action of the novel.  Caught between them is Anne Eliot, mostly alone and without a settled home.  It is of interest to the reader observe how (and if) Anne rises to meet the challenges facing her. 

Austen has a fine talent for setting the stage for her tales and filling them with memorable characters.  In Persuasion some are little better than caricatures, but the central actors are well drawn and have an emotional depth to them.  The action builds slowly but surely, but there is never any great danger.  The tale is more comfortable than challenging, and yet is also engaging, even compelling.  That is, if you are the right shape for it.